February 2014 sales of America’s six continuing full-size pickup lineups grew 1.8%, but GM’s truck twins, the newest trucks on the block, fell 8.9%. Ford, Ram, Toyota, and Nissan combined for an 8.7% year-over-year increase to 94,225 units. The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra’s decline equalled a loss of 4960 units compared with February 2013.

These full-size trucks accounted for 12.2% of the U.S. auto industry’s total February 2014 volume, up slightly from 11.9% in the equivalent period one year earlier.

Although the F-Series’ gain of 2.6% appears slight, this improvement occurred in an auto market which grew not at all. Moreover, a 2.6% increase for the F-Series adds 1393 extra units of a very profitable vehicle, more added sales than the Chevrolet Volt managed in total.

Total Ford brand sales slid more than 7% in February as car volume plunged 16.8% and sales of the Blue Oval’s five utility vehicles dropped 4.3%. Ford’s car division outsold the F-Series by just 1354 units; the F-Series outsold the utility vehicle lineup by 3040 units. 30.5% of the new vehicles sold by the Ford Motor Company last month were F-Series pickups.

At the Chrysler Group, where car sales dropped 14.7% and generated just 29% of the company’s February sales volume, the Ram Pickup range’s 28.4% improvement was more than welcome. And it was also expected. Over the eleven months leading up to February, the average year-over-year Ram P/U sales increase weighed in at 25.5%. From 16.3% in February 2013, Ram’s share of the full-size truck market (extinguished Escalade EXT and Avalanche excluded) rose to 20.2% in February 2014.

Often mocked for its inability to crank out sales like the top-selling Detroit trucks, the Toyota Tundra continues to be a somewhat popular vehicle by conventional automobile standards. Through the first two months of 2014, it ranks 41st among all vehicles in total U.S. sales, having ended 2013 as America’s 43rd-best-selling vehicle. Tundra sales have increased in each of the last five months, but the current pace won’t have Toyota matching 2007’s high-water mark. Toyota could easily sell more than 120,000 Tundras in 2014 – 196,555 were sold in 2007.

Analyzing the Nissan Titan’s market penetration as it begins its eleventh full year without any meaningful refresh is like studying the merits of a veteran linebacker’s knack for sacking in the twilight of his career. The Titan has for the most part become irrelevant, a fact which won’t make the reintroduction process an easy one when the new Titan arrives. Titan sales reached their peak in 2005 at 86,945 units, fell below 20,000 units four years later, and totalled just 15,691 in 2013. Titan volume is down 33.8% this year and February market share in the category fell below 1%.

From a market share-losing perspective, the Chevrolet Silverado’s decline was worse. (Obviously, the Silverado is America’s second-best-selling vehicle. The Titan is not.) 29.2% of the segment’s sales were Silverado-derived at this time last year, but last month, that figure fell to 25.2%. GMC Sierra market share declined by only a hair, from 9.9% in February 2013 to 9.8% last month.

As a whole, the pickup truck segment generated 11% of its February 2014 sales with small/midsize trucks, on par with results from the equivalent period one year earlier. Thank the Nissan Frontier. Sales of the Titan’s little brother shot up 112% to 5791 units.

58 Comments on “Cain’s Segments: Trucks Redux...”

Ah, but according to Automotive News, transaction prices on GM trucks are up by $3,000. Volume is down 8%, but dollars per truck are up enough that overall GM hauls in more money from its big trucks, while enjoying lower costs from not having to build as many.

Neat trick if you can keep it up. Except they’re going to have to start slashing prices when they’re not the newest truck on the block.

With the Silverado’s increased price and still being made in Mexico, there profits must greater then Ford and Ram. But the decrease in sales might also be due to the Silverado being made in Mexico and not just looking like a poorly designed truck. So it could be a wash for profits. Less sales and being made in Mexico.

If you go to either Chevy or GMC website, you can see they are putting a lot of money on the hood for both Chevy and GMC Silverado 1500 right now and have decided to do a March “truck month” promotion.

Interestingly, GM is not making its new DI V-8s available in the 3/4 ton and larger models. If you don’t want the problematic diesel, you’re stuck with the weaker and thirstier 6 liter gas engine.

Big difference the half tons aren’t really bought by truck people any more, and truck people don’t put up with crap non truck people put up with. Therefore GM would hurt itself more than anything else to get rid of the LS based 6.0.

I think what may contribute to contracting sales of GM trucks is that most people have seen through all the GM hype promoting the 2014s and have come to see the trucks for what they really are: more of the same old same old, wrapped in some new sheetmetal.

You really have to be a GM cheerleader to want to buy something that is fundamentally unchanged since 1988.

What’s revolutionary about the car engine under the hood of the Tundra? The motors in the GM trucks will outperform the V8 Tundra and use less gas doing it. They also offer a smaller footprint for easier maintenance and less moving parts to break and wear out. I owned a Toyota with an OHC engine, that was the worst thing about the truck. It’s lack of low end grunt for towing is one of the big reasons I stepped into a Chevy and haven’t looked at Toyota since. That and they just build a better full size truck than Toy.

@HDC think about this. The 6.0 engine in my 2004 GMC 2500HD lugging around a 3/4 ton crew cab chassis yields the same MPG as your 2011 1/2 ton Tundra. So with my 2004 GM technology I have a truck that will out haul and tow circles around that Tundra and I don’t pay a price at the pump. Try dropping a 3500 lb. pallet of patio pavers in the bed of that Tundra and see what happens. You’ll be heading to a frame and body shop faster than you can say Toyota. So again tell me what is so amazing about the engine in that 2011 Tundra that doesn’t even compete with what GM was making in 2004.

I get truly horrendous gas mileage going up US 82 with a trailer load of brick, ceramic tile, adhesive and mortar behind my Tundra. Same when I drove a Silverado or F150.

The cost of gas is just part of the cost of living for me, and for most of us.

Fuel economy never has mattered to me because I will pay whatever fuel costs to keep me driving. It beats walking.

In my area, Premium gas costs ~$3.61/gal, and that’s all I use for all three of my cars and my three gas AC-generators.

My approach is this: I set up a hierarchy of priorities to spend my monthly income on, with gasoline at the top.

If there is any money left over at the end of the month, I spend that on going out to eat with the fam, like at Applebee’s, Chili’s, Red Lobster, etc.

My daily lattes are no more, and maybe I don’t eat out at least two times a day anymore, but I’m still driving.

To me that’s most important. Besides that, I just love the finesse of the Tundra 5.7. Every other Tundra owner I talk to also gushes about that magnificent engine. It’s like having a Ferrari engine under the hood of a truck!

Hey, to keep time you can buy a Timex. But if you buy a Rolex, that tells the world you’ve arrived.

The Tundra 5.7 is the Rolex of truck engines. There are more powerful mills, and there are simpler pushrod mills, but the one that inspires the most awe is the Tundra 5.7.

The others have often evoked an “Awwww Sheeeeeit” from me. I’ve owned them before. My experience. Also that of my father-in-law. I got my beginnings rebuilding my dad’s 426 Hemi Dragster engines. And he was a perfectionist!

If people are happy with the common, more power to them. I’m thrilled that Toyota offers the Tundra 5.7 as an alternative to the common.

But, to each his own, I say. I know what I like. Others can have their own druthers.

HDC, I agree to each his own. I wouldn’t be on my 3rd GM truck if the first two had been POS’s.

I do have to wonder why you feel the need to always post on any article/story pertaining to GM trucks. And it is always the same old tired banter. Your Tundra is the greatest thing since sliced bread and who in their right mind would buy a GM truck. They just keep building the same old crap. Really?

So tell me, who is envious? Who feels like they have something to
prove?Your really not any different than those guys in the domestics flipping you the bird. You just a little nicer about it. And I wouldn’t flip you off because I’m in the truck I want to be in.

Carlson Fan wrote, “I do have to wonder why you feel the need to always post on any article/story pertaining to GM trucks. And it is always the same old tired banter. Your Tundra is the greatest thing since sliced bread and who in their right mind would buy a GM truck. They just keep building the same old crap.”

That’s easy! The answer is, because the people choosing to buy a Tundra always get put down by the Toyota haters, especially the GM fan boys.

I actually READ all the comments in a thread that interests me, on ttac and elsewhere, and the bias against Toyota and its products is pure and unadulterated.

I have only bought three brand new trucks in my life, an ’88 Silverado, a 2006 F150 and a 2011 Tundra 5.7. The Tundra is, without a doubt, the best and most trouble-free truck I have ever owned, new or used. It is also the best riding, best handling and most quiet inside the cab.

I think it is great that you enjoy your GM products. You should. You’re paying for them.

When I bought my ’88 Silverado I also thought it was the best truck I had ever owned, until the little things started needing warranty attention. Maybe that’s changed now — maybe GM just waits 10 years before issuing a recall for problems. They did with the saddlebag tanks on my old Kidney Buster.

At the time I owned the Silverado I was still building my house and really needed a truck.

Three days in-shop warranty times can really slow things down. Fortunately, I had a very understanding father-in-law who loaned me one of his HD3500 Duallies, and that experience did not endear me to the GM truck brands at all.

So in 2006 I bought an F150 5.4. I thought it was the greatest truck I ever owned and certainly better than my POS ’88 Silverado, and then it, too, started to need warranty care. But there was nothing better at that time.

In 2010 I decided to try a foreign brand and looked at the Titan but had already been predisposed by a Toyota seminar to check out and test drive the 2010 Tundra, even 4.6L Tundra.

My mind was made up after I test-drove the Tundra 5.7 when I had to drive home from the Toyota dealership in El Paso, TX, in my ratty, rattling and squeaking F150.

But, alas, in 2010 the Toyota dealer was too proud of the Tundra to let it go for MSRP, and certainly not under MSRP. I had to wait another six months.

By 2011, hard times had hit Toyota as well and they called “me” to see if I was still interested.

The rest is history.

Someone needs to let the world know how great the Tundra 5.7 is. And I feel compelled to speak up whenever I see an article about how great GM was/is/and will be again.

It’s claptrap, spun by the boys and girls in GM’s marketing department, against all odds.

The F150 is infinitely a better truck than anything GM can muster and real-world buyers know it because they put their money where their mouth is.

One thing I will always be grateful to GM for. Their stock did very well for me when I divested in the 2007/2008 time frame.

thelaine, I’m always surprised to find a response to my comments since I do not set out to win an audience, and unlike some avid commenters on ttac who know everything about any given subject, do not post nearly as much as they do, but limit my own comments solely to the things I actually know something about, or have experience with.

That said, I actually do read all the comments within the threads that I am interested in.

In many cases I learn something from reading the comments of others, and there are some really knowledgeable people among the B&B. I like that!

LOL, that was funny. My dad has a 2005 Silverado LT 2500 Duramax with 58,000 miles on it. Bought new. It’s been a complete junker. The interior rattles and is falling apart, the intermediate shaft has had to be replaced three times, the expandable tow mirrors don’t go out anymore, the tailgate latch is broken and flimsy, the gauge cluster has gone out, both the front hubs have gone out with the right one now going out again, the brakes are the worthless, the transmission grinds intermittently going into park, the 4WD system is worthless and it can’t go in a puddle of water without getting its miserable self stuck, and you can’t even look at the body without the cheap, flimsy sheet metal denting. Like a Rock, LOL. FAIL.

My grandpa has a 2004 mechanically identical Sierra that has only 39K that has had the EXACT same problems the Silverado has had.

They’ve owned several Toyota trucks and will never ever claim those sorry GM trucks are better. They only bought them because Toyota did not offer a diesel and the 2007 Tundra was not out yet. My dad’s next truck will be a Tundra and he’s finally gotten to the point where the Silverado’s days are numbered. I’ve driven the new GMs too, aside from better interiors and newer engines, much of the same trash.

@84Cressida,
Overseas people are not laughing at them. Completely different makeup of vehicles outside NA. I had newly married couple from Texas comment” There are no trucks here” Here being Central/Eastern Europe. They were referring too Pickups, rare as hens teeth. Go to Southern Asia they are more prevalent than in NA.

I’ve been thinking about this for the past 6 months and given sales of the Silverado for the first 2 months of the year – this could have an outside possibility….could Ram overtake the Chevy for 2nd place???

To answer my own question, probably not this year but if the trend continues, 2015 is a real possibility. I know Sergio would love to see something like that happen.

The only really great RAM version is the 5.7 V8 version. It’s more gutsy than the V6 and if driven gently, can return pretty decent gas mileage (for those who have to watch their fuel expenditures) because of the cylinder-management system.

These sales numbers are meaningless. Let’s see a real comparison of 1/2 ton PU truck sales. GM’s 1/2 ton trucks may be selling better than last year but their 3/4 ton and larger sales are down accounting for an overall decline in Silverado/Sierra sales. Ford’s 1/2 ton sales may be down but their 3/4 ton and bigger are up accounting for an increase in total F-Series sales. Who knows with the data you have supplied. Toy and Nissan don’t even offer anything bigger than a 1/2 ton. So what’s the point of comparing apples & oranges. You might as well put GM’s 1/2 ton SUV sales in there as well if we are going to muddy the water.

Do an real comparison of 1/2 ton PU sales and then get back to me. The 3/4 tons and up are a different truck and a different market.

How many HD trucks have you owned? In 2004 the Ford 3/4 ton gasser wasn’t even in the same league with the GM offerings. That’s why I bought my Sierra 2500HD. Let me know if that Tundra of yours goes 150K on the original brakes. My 10 year old GMC w/160K still looks and drives like a brand new truck. I figure it might be 1/2 wore out at this point.

This is a very fair point, but to my knowledge GM and Ford don’t release sales numbers beyond “Total Silverado/Sierra” and “Total F-Series” deliveries – the same way Toyota Matrix sales were always folded into Corolla sales.

GM releases sales for its four separate brands, so they always have a bright spot to highlight every month, even if three of the four brands didn’t do so well. One would think it would be in GM’s interest to show that at least SOME of their trucks are actually doing well.

But from a marketing perspective, the more qualifications you add to a claim, the weaker it looks. The way Ford bunches all weights and versions of the F-Series into one nameplate, they will probably always get to say they build the “Best-selling Truck”, period.

Chevy could claim they build the “best-selling half-ton”, “best-selling V8″, or “best-selling crew cab”, but none of those sound as impressive, even if backed up by numbers.

I see your point, and I don’t expect it to change, but the odd part to me is that there’s many examples of cars that are platform sharing, and maybe just slightly different, but are in fact counted seperately. VW counts Golfs separate from Jettas no?

Comparing F150 to F250 isn’t just a different model package, there is virtually no carryover… different frames, different cabs, different beds, different drivetrain options. etc. It’s not like yesteryear where the 3/4 ton was the same truck equipped with some heavier suspension bits.

It would be like lumping in Chevy Impala sales with Chevy Cruze sales because they’re both Chevy sedans.

They could cut-and-paste the new Colorado’s styling… looks decades newer-looking than the Silverado’s. That’s a presumably cheap fix. Keep the Sierra’s more upright styling as a good way to differentiate the brands.

Also, the Silverado’s interior (from the photos) looks like it came from Fisher-Price. That’s another area of potential improvement. The local car show starts up next weekend so I can correct myself, if needed.

mikey, what GM has done is tweak their line of trucks with each re-generation. Each version was a small improvement on the previous version.

What was revolutionary about Ford truck development was that it was a two-pronged approach; the light-duty F150 with its revolutionary Ecobust, and the other side of the house with the F250 and up.

What was revolutionary for Tundra was that Toyota took all the best ideas from the American truck makers and improved upon them, like the GM inspired 350 with 32-valve DOHC heads from the Lexus LS460, all done in aluminum, mated with a 6-speed automatic, also from the LS460.

I completely understand that some people love their GM trucks. I’m cool with that. In 1988 I thought my brand new Silverado was the best truck I ever owned; well, until the typical little problems popped up and I had to go in for warranty service, time and again.

Anyone who actually uses a pickup truck for anything other than to impress the public knows that Ford is the best-seller (for a reason) and the Tundra 5.7 is THE truck for the discerning pickup truck driver.

If someone wants to drive an everyman’s truck, they’ll buy a Ford. But if someone really wants the Rolls-Royce of pickup trucks, and can afford it, the Tundra 5.7 is the way to go, in any version.